Such a pack is prepared in a known manner by tight packing of the group of articles. The tight packing consists in surrounding the set of articles to be packed up with a heat-shrinkable plastic material film, in particular with a heat-shrinkable polyethylene film. The envelope formed with the film is welded on the edges which overlap in such a manner as to form a sleeve around the articles grouped together. The retention of the articles may be achieved, for example, by the effect of the heat which causes the tightening of the film around the articles which it envelops. The two open ends of the sleeve shrink to form at the two ends of the pack an opening of oval shape, generally referred to as a crescent.
The opening of the pack and the removal of the articles present a problem.
It is, in fact, desired to avoid the use of a sharp-edged tool, which is not always available immediately when it is desired to remove one of the articles, and which, moreover, runs the risk of damaging the articles and/or of causing a poorly controlled tearing of the film, releasing a number of articles greater than that desired.
A solution already proposed by EP-A-0537079 consists in providing as opening means tongues, for example of rectangular shape, the major dimension of which is oriented parallel to the preferred direction of tearing, these tongues being precut along their two long sides and one short side. Such tongues are constructed by indentations of"punch" type, at positions which are spaced from one another.
While constituting an advance, this solution exhibits a plurality of disadvantages, in particular the discontinuous construction of these indentations, as well as the limitation of the choice of the opening locations which must correspond to these tongues.
The principal object of the invention is to provide a pack of articles, in which pack the means for opening the plastic material film permit an easy and controlled opening of the load constituted by the pack of articles at a number of points which is as large as possible, in such a manner as to enable the user to choose the place which is the most appropriate for forming each opening.